264 
AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 
gun to my eye, when he swept down, with the rapidity of an 
arrow, into a thicket of briers, about thirty yards off, where I 
shot him dead, and, on coming up, found the small field 
sparrow (fig. 2.) quivering in his grasp. Both our aims had 
been taken in the same instant, and, unfortunately for him, 
both were fatal. It is particularly fond of watching along 
hedgerows, and in orchards, where those small birds repre- 
sented in the same plate usually resort. When grasshoppers 
are plenty, they form a considerable part of its food. 
Though small snakes, mice, lizards, &c. be favourite morsels 
with this active bird, yet we are not to suppose it altogether 
destitute of delicacy in feeding. It will seldom or never eat 
of any thing that it has not itself killed, and even that, if not 
(as epicures would term it) in good eating order , is sometimes 
rejected. A very respectable friend, through the medium of 
Mr Bartram, informs me, that one morning he observed one 
of these Hawks dart down on the ground, and seize a mouse, 
which he carried to a fence post, where, after examining it 
for some time, he left it, and, a little while after, pounced upon 
another mouse, which he instantly carried off to his nest, in 
the hollow of a tree hard by. The gentleman, anxious to 
know why the Hawk had rejected the first mouse, went up to 
it, and found it to be almost covered with lice, and greatly 
emaciated ! Here was not only delicacy of taste, but sound 
and prudent reasoning: — If I carry this to my nest, thought 
he, it will fill it with vermin, and hardly be worth eating. 
The Blue Jays have a particular antipathy to this bird, and 
frequently insult it by following and imitating its notes so 
exactly, as to deceive even those well acquainted with both. 
In return for all this abuse, the Hawk contents himself with, 
now and then, feasting on the plumpest of his persecutors, 
who are, therefore, in perpetual dread of him ; and yet, through 
some strange infatuation, or from fear that, if they lose sight 
of him, he may attack them unawares, the Sparrow Hawk no 
sooner appears than the alarm is given, and the whole posse 
of Jays follow. 
